FIVE WEEK FIGHTING TOUR OF JAPAN IS PERFECT PREPARATION FOR JUDO WORLD GAMES
Japan Tour Prepares for Judo Games. Paralympic gold medallist Chris Hunt Skelley MBE has returned (to Wiltshire/UK) from a five-week training tour of Japan. This as he continues his preparation for the European Championships and IBSA World Games next month – August 18 to 27 2023.
This intense training has also helped the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist to prepare for qualification to compete in the next Paralympics in Paris next year.
Chris said: ‘The camp was about building up to the championships and world games, to take it up to the next level and making sure we were in the best possible shape we can be.’
Judo Champion
Chris, who is the current 100kg Judo Paralympic gold medallist, was one of several athletes taking part in training camps in Japan. All organised by British Judo.
Japan Tour Prepares for Judo Games Chris Hunt Skelley MBE during his fighting tour of Japan with fellow fighters.
‘Japan is the home of Judo, it’s a fantastic place to go to,’ he said. ‘You come across different athletes, of different shapes and sizes, and different abilities. They are amazing fighters so it is top-class work and hard as well.
‘As Judo is one of the main sports in Japan, it meant we could go to so many different universities and fight. They don’t use their strength so much, but they are very technical fighters. It was worthwhile going out there to improve my own performance and to be smarter when competing.’
For the first two weeks, Chris and his group stayed at the International Budo University, in Katssura, Chiba Prefecture. They then moved to central Tokyo for three weeks. There they visited several universities, including Nichidai (Nihon University) and Meiji University.
The trip wasn’t all about fighting though. Chris was able to spend some quality time exploring this fascinating country. ‘It’s the most downtime we’ve had since I’ve been going out there to train. We got to visit temples, the centre of Tokyo, a fish market and lots of cool places.’
And far from taking a few weeks to relax, Chris is brimming with confidence and is eager to get going in Birmingham. ‘It’s very much a case of my coach having to hold me back!’
World games
The IBSA World Gamesis the largest high-level international event for athletes with visual impairment. It has more than 1,250 competitors from seventy nations. It will take place from 18-27 August 2023, at the University of Birmingham.
CHILDREN’S ART DISPLAYED ALONGSIDE TURNER’S ABBEY PAINTING AT MALMESBURY’S ATHELSTAN MUSEUM. Artwork from local children will join Malmesbury’s most famous exhibit: Turner’s abbey painting. Works from pupils at Malmesbury secondary school will be at the Athelstan museum in August and September.
The museum bought Turner’s evocative watercolour of the town’s abbey at auction. The money came via a mixture of local fundraising, funding from the National Lottery and from the Art Fund.
The seller had been to America looking for a buyer. But an advert spotted in Country Life by Athelstan Museum trustee, Angela Sykes, was the catalyst. One that would at length lead to the painting on permanent display in the town.
Artists of the future
Now the young artists of the future are able to see their own work alongside that of one of the world’s most well known masters.
CHILDREN’S ART DISPLAYED ALONGSIDE TURNER’S Photo shows Ben Hobbs, a young artist from Malmesbury School who took part in the Turner project alongside his work.
Angela said: ‘JMW Turner is one of the country’s greatest painters. And to have his interpretation of Malmesbury Abbey hanging in our museum is no better place for people to see it.
In fact, the painting hadn’t been on display anywhere for over forty years. It could have gone overseas, into a private collection.’
Funding criteria
One of the principal criteria expressed by the National Lottery for the successful funding of the purchase was for the museum to involve a ‘wider range of people in heritage’.
As a result, they developed the Turner Diversity Programme. It aims to take art connected to the Turner painting to as many different sections of society as possible.
Involving young people was an important part of this strategy. The museum runs workshops and events for younger people during school holidays. They also invite schools to visit the museum for tours and talks.
Museum outreach
The museum’s outreach team also visits schools to help with specific projects in the curriculum. This latest project work has developed by teacher Sue Gibbons involving forty year 8 students from Malmesbury School. They were able to take part in workshops where they explored the watercolour techniques used by Turner. They then applied them by spending an afternoon painting their own watercolours of Malmesbury Abbey.
Susan Mockler, vice-chair of the Athelstan Museum management team, said: ‘The work with the school has been particularly interesting. The enthusiasm of the pupils and the skills they’ve displayed have expanded our expectations about what’s possible.
The school has been a great partner and leader in this project. We look forward to working with them in the future. This project has brought in more young people to enjoy the museum. It’s only possible to appreciate our living history by experiencing it in such places as museums.’
What the children got from it
For the children, the project was an opportunity to learn more about Turner, his work and the techniques he used. The Museum provided them with watercolours for the project. But what did the children know about Turner and his watercolour?
‘All I knew was that he’d lived in Malmesbury and had sketched it, but finished the painting later in life,’ said Lucy Horlick, Year 8, Malmesbury School. Her painting is one of those chosen for exhibition alongside the Turner. ‘He used to paint from what he felt as well as what he saw. So I tried to paint my piece from what I felt while I was standing in front of the Abbey.’
Gabe Willet, also Year 8, said: ‘He used a lot of watercolours in his work. So a lot of our paintings use similar techniques and look like his.
‘One of his techniques that I had read about was that he started with lighter colours, and then went over in the dark. So that’s what I did with my painting,” added Sophie McMullen, also Year 8.
Before the project, the children visited the museum where one of the volunteers talked to them about the painting and the techniques he used.
Sue Gibbons, Curriculum Leader for Art at Malmesbury School, said: ‘The children had one workshop in school to explore using watercolours. Then a second where they sat in the grounds of the Abbey and in that time they did amazing work.
‘They see the Abbey every day, and a lot of them would have taken it for granted. It was lovely to sit there and for them to think ‘this is an amazing building, it’s beautiful’. Luckily, the weather was glorious when we were painting. But it’s my belief they now have more of an appreciation of the beauty of the Abbey.’
All the work produced for the project was exhibited. That included that of the children of Minety Primary School and some created in community workshops. Although not all the children’s artwork will be on display in the museum, as part of the project and to extend engagement, a larger exhibition was held at the Julia and Hans Rausing Building in Malmesbury in June.
Sue Gibbons said: ‘The exhibition was amazing. A lot of effort went into making it look as professional as possible, all the pieces were professionally mounted, and it looked great.’
The Torin Building Swindon – and there’s a reason that I’ve specified Swindon here. It’s because our Torin building has a sister building of sorts in Brussels, Belgium. And I’ll return to that later.
The Torin Corporation (the erstwhile Torrington Manufacturing Company- produced air-moving equipment. (Fans to you and me I imagine.) The company had its HQ in Torrington, Connecticut. In 1965 the company asked renowned Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) and his associate, Robert Gatje, to design a facility for their British division on Swindon’s Greenbridge industrial estate.
The company planned to use the recently completed facility in Nivelles, Brussels as a model – both in plan and constructions techniques. But – the modular, precast concrete panels used to such striking effect in Brussels turned out to be cost-prohibitive in England.
Instead, the designers sheathed most of the facades in vertical, white aluminium with brick accents around doors and windows. The entrance façade featured a cantilevered canopy – like most of the other Torin buildings – projecting from a black brick façade. A horizontal strip of windows bisected the façade, lining up with the bottom edge of the canopy. Breuer provided a splash of colour by painting the structural steel and mechanical elements on the roof red-orange. Frishman-Spyer Associates served as the supervising architects for this project.
Now Torin-Safin
As you can see from the image, the company is now called Torin-Sifan. In 2015, as reported here, the company invested over £2m in a new facility at Swindon’s Pagoda Park and celebrated its 50th anniversary in Swindon.
‘Its expansion with the opening of the EC Manufacturing and Technology Centre follows five decades of manufacturing in Swindon with the new facility allowing the company to increase EC production by over 20%, whilst continuing with the manufacture of its traditional product ranges at its existing Greenbridge HQ.’
Managing director Neil Sproston said: ‘As we celebrate 50 years of British manufacturing and innovation, we are delighted to open a world-class manufacturing centre here in Swindon.’
As it happens I have a niece in Brussels so I got her onto the case. She managed to get for me, via a sort of tourist information office a few images.
The Torrington factory over in continental Europe is, at the moment, Sabert Europe – a sustainable food packaging and tableware company.
The kind people in Brussels also sent my niece a PDF brochure taken from the catalogue of an exhibition at the Atomiumthat ran from December 16, 2011 to April 15, 2012. Called ‘958 – 1980 Facades en concret / Betongevels / concrete walls most of it is in French. Quelle Surprise! Aside from what’s below.
Twelfth Night first hit a stage in 1602. Four hundred and twenty one years ago! But this year, 2023, you can find Twelfth Night at the Bowl. Not the Hollywood Bowl but one rather similar – the bowl in Town Gardens.
Beware – spoilers!
Viola, separated from her twin Sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino, whom she falls in love with. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for him, but Olivia falls for Viola instead. Sebastian arrives, causing a flood of mistaken identity, and marries Olivia. Viola then reveals she is a girl and marries Orsino.
But it all turns out alright in the end in true Shakespearian style.
The Duke’s Theatre Company
From their website: ‘What can you expect from a Duke’s Theatre Company performance?’
‘The full text in all its glory; innovative production design to support the unparalleled energy of our wonderful cast; original music so that Shakespeare’s songs are heard in a whole new way – and all we ask is that you come prepared for a wonderful time.’
You know you want to don’t you? 🙂 Pack up a picnic and get yourself a drink at the venue bar and sit back and relax and let the joy of outdoor theatre wash over you. We’re so fortunate in Swindon to have such a fantastic venue as we do in the art deco bowl in our splendid town gardens. We’re fortunate too to have South Swindon Parish Council bringing us these wonderful theatrical events.
Swindon’s Sanford Street school for boys opened in 1881 with capacity for 794 boys. The building cost of £5 per child was in-line with the standard cost of infant schools at that time – but this one boasted a superior design. It’s reasonable to assume that the school’s designer, Brightwen Binyon, felt proud of his design for this school being as he published it in Building News in 1881. That decision had a far-reaching consequence – literally. For an Australian architect, HR Bastow, saw the publication and used the design as the basis for his Richmond North Primary School in Victoria, Australia. Thus, in Australia there is (or was??) a school if not identical then very, very like Swindon’s Sanford Street School.
The school board’s ambition gave Binyon the chance to be innovative. Their aspiration allowed him to introduce a non-denominational architectural style to an otherwise conservative (with a small c) client.
Popularising this aesthetic approach was the Chief Architect of the London School Board: Edward Robson.
Sanford Street School – architect drawing
The design arranged the school into three separate areas of open classrooms. Thus it went: juniors, middle, and seniors each with an individual external entrance, with through classroom circulation.
Binyon arranged the classroom blocks around the corner site to form a picturesque composition of gables and hipped roofs. Meanwhile the elevations combined different symmetries of large windows, entrances and dormers over-laid with classical motifs, decorative brickwork and terracotta monograms. Duncan & Mandy’s website has some great images of this detail on the building. Here are just a couple.
Harold Fleming. Footballer Harold Fleming (1887-1955) made his Swindon Town debut in 1907 at the age of 20, and played his first international two years later.
Edward William Beard – he entered the world in 1878 and lived until the age of 104, having never stopped working at the building firm he led and which still thrives and bears his name.
Frederick Hawksworth (1884-1976). Frederick joined the Great Western Railway as an apprentice at the age of 14. It was the start of a career which saw rise to the position of chief mechanical engineer.
Frederick Herbert Spencer (1872-1946) – this Frederick was a prize-winning pupil who went on to become a teacher and obtain a doctorate.
Sanford Street School/Sanford House today
As for the present day – Sanford House finds itself put to good use. Run by Voluntary Action Swindon, the building houses eleven charities including MIND,Swindon Carers and Citizen’s Advice. You’ll also find here Swindon Borough Council’s Live Well hub tackling health inequalities by promoting and improving health and well-being and referring to other services.
In the car park you can hire scooters from Shopmobility to help you get around the town. There’s a cafe too with fair-weather seating that’s open to all and serving drinks and light snacks.
Sanford House also has room’s available to rent through Voluntary Action Swindon’s website.
